KCB201, Community Participation Task: Virtual Community Report

The online community I chose to describe is Digital Photography Review.

DPReview was very helpful when I was looking for a new camera, as it has reviewed just about every digital camera on the market and new reviews come out as soon as new cameras hit the shelves. Also, they have the option of comparing any two cameras side by side: something no magazine or department store assistant will ever be able to do.

The forums are what make an online community out of DPR members; there are no other services that exclude DPR members from ordinary visitors. This is an underachievement for a web site that has 18 million members. However, the forums are very comprehensive. There is a forum for just about every brand of camera. This is a great facility for new and experienced users because they can obtain quick—sometimes instant—feedback on any queries.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether your photos appeal to a large audience when you are the only critic, and one of the most useful forums I’ve participated in is the ‘Samples and Galleries’ forum. This is where members can post up their photos for admiration and critique by other community members. This service helps amateur photographers—like me—gain a better sense of what we are doing right and wrong in our photography.

I have to say that without such a comprehensive list of forums, I would not keep coming back to DPR: my interaction would have stopped after I bought my new camera.
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You can view my contributions here, here, here, here, here, and here. Oh, and here. [you will have to scroll through to find my posts. my nickname is cpahor]

*Photo courtesy of my home street.